2
36
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
When once in the army keep me informed by post-card of your military address and a n y change i n that address, even should you be sent to France. Although you may not be chosen early among those needed for chemical service, the demand for chemists is constantly increasing, and your country may call you a t any time where you are best trained to serve.
Vol.
IO,
No. 3
It is my duty to help place you where you can serve our country best as the need arises. It is your duty to keep me informed of your address and to accept any service to which the War Department may assign you, even though you may prefer to fight in the ranks in France. CHARLESI,. PARSONS, Secretary FEBRUARY 15, 1918
1
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE SPRING MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY After consultation with the Advisory Committee and other members of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, the Directors have voted to omit the Spring Meeting of the Society, which was to have been held in St. Louis this coming April. It is felt that the transportation conditions are such that unnecessary travel should be avoided, and also that the chemists of the country are so busily engaged in meeting war needs that their work should not be interrupted for the purpose of conference a t this time. The Annual Meeting of the Society will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, in September. CHARLESL. PARSONS,Secretary WASHINGTON, D. C. January 29, 1918
WAR RISK INSURANCE FOR CHEMISTS IN MILITARY SERVICE All chemists in the military service are urged to take out war risk insurance, even if they are assigned to chemical service or are later released from the army for service in the war industries. This is a form of insurance arranged by the War Department a t a very nominal rate, which gives adequate protection against death or injury.
RAMSAY MEMORIAL FUND After the death of Sir William Ramsay in July 1916,a memorial meeting was held in London to commemorate his thirty-five years of service in physical and chemical sciences, education, and public welfare. The gathering of distinguished men, under the chairmanship of Lord Rayleigh, decided 1-To
raise a substantial fund as a memorial to Sir William; and use such fund for the establishment of (a) Ramsay Research Fellowships, tenable wherever necessary facilities might be available, and ( b ) Ramsay Memorial Laboratory of Engineering Chemistry at the University of London, where Sir William served twenty-six of his most fruitful years of activity.
2-To
A committee of prominent men in the physical and chemical sciences in Great Britain, including the leaders of the Coalition Government and Ambassadors then accredited to the Court of St. James, was later organized. Through this general organization, committees were organized in Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Holland, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Correspondence with men of science indicates the formation of national committees also in China, France,’ and Sweden, and perhaps Russia. The sum set out to be raised was &IOO,OOO. To date something over S300 have already been contributed by residents of the United States. The merits of the objects of this fund are obvious. The recognition of a man who made so many valuable contributions to our knowledge and who won so many friends through his wonderful friendly sympathy and erudition appeals especially to American men and women.
The Committee expects some generous contributions and will welcome the receipt of other large gifts, but it hopes eepecially to have a great number of small subscribers. The receipt of checks, postal orders, or cash, for one dollar or over, sent to the Ramsay Memorial Fund Association, 50 East 41st St., New York City, will be promptly acknowledged. U N I T E D STATES ClOMMITTEE F O R T H E RAMISAY MEMORIAL FUND
Walter Hines Page, Vice President Charles Baskerville Chairmdn Wm. J. Matheson, Treasurer Leo H. Baekeland Wilder D. Bancroft Marston T.Bogert Chas. F.Chandler Francis W. Clarke
Charles James George F. Kunz F. Austin Lidbury Arthur D. Little C . E. K. Mees R. A. Millikan
,.,.......
Richard B. Moore Wm. H. Nichols William A. Noyes Henr F Osborne Charcs L. Parsons Ira Remsen Theodore W. Richards Edgar F. Smith E. G. Spilsbury Julius Stieglitz Milton C. Whitaker
Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: I am deeply interested in the appeal made by the Committee on the Ramsay Memorial which is to appear in this issue of your journal. Knowing Sir William as well as I did, I cannot imagine a more graceful compliment than that every member of the chemical fraternity should have some part in this work. It would afford me great pleasure if every member of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY should promptly remit something to the fund, realizing that the matter ’of taking part in it is of more consequence than the amount of the subscription. N s w YORKCITY WILLIAMH. NICHOLS February 1 5 9 1 9 1 8 P r e s i d e d , American Chemical Society
CHEMICAL RESEARCH IN THE VARIOUS COUNTRIES BEFORE THE WAR AND IN I917 Dr. Bernhard C. Hesse recently suggested to me that he and probably others would be interested in information regarding the effect of the war on the relative chemical activities of the various nations. I a’m able to supply information on this subject only in so far as this activity is reflected in the publication of papers and is measured by the number of abstracts published in Chemical Abstracts. In peace times such figures would be a fair gauge of chemical research throughout the world; a t the present time they are, of course, affected by the fact that much chemical work in the warring nations is kept secret and also by the fact that Chemical Abstracts is having great difficulty in getting abstracts of the papers published in Germany and Austria. Nevertheless the figures in the accompanying table are not without considerable meaning. With the exception of the Japanese, German and Austrian literature the field of chemistry was covered thoroughly by Chemical Abstracts both in 1913 and in 1917; the Japanese journals were only partly abstracted in 1913 and the German and Austrian literature was covered with onlya fair degree of thoroughness in 1917. Inability to get the German and Austrian journals is the reason for the incompleteness in 1917. I believe that the figures in the table give a fair representation to Germany and Austria, however, because the 1917volume of Chemical Abstracts contains in addition to abstracts of most of the current papers (obtained from British, Dutch, Spanish and Swiss journals with abstract sections), a considerable number of abstracts of papers published in 1916,due to the fact that a
